zvati / nazvati (to call/phone) | Serbian Grammar

Serbian звати covers several English senses of call: telephone someone, summon or invite someone, address someone by a name, and—with се—be called. Its present stem changes unexpectedly: звати — зовем — зову, one of the stem alternations surveyed on the e-class present page. The perfective partner depends on the meaning. Позвати is the neutral perfective for one phone call, summons, or invitation, while назвати is central when someone gives or applies a name.

The title pair звати / назвати is therefore a lexical network, not one interchangeable pair for every context. Contemporary phone usage of назвати is widespread, but traditional Serbian style guidance often prefers позвати телефоном. Learning the sense, complement frame, and register prevents a misleading one-word translation.

The changing present stem

All three frequent verbs use -ем forms with о in the present stem.

Person	звати (imperfective)	назвати (perfective)	позвати (perfective)
ја	зовем	назовем	позовем
ти	зовеш	назовеш	позовеш
он / она / оно	зове	назове	позове
ми	зовемо	назовемо	позовемо
ви	зовете	назовете	позовете
они / оне / она	зову	назову	позову

Зовем те из аутобуса јер ћу каснити десетак минута.

I am calling you from the bus because I will be about ten minutes late.

Кад позовеш сервис, питај колико ће поправка трајати.

When you call the repair service, ask how long the repair will take.

The perfective present позовеш is future-oriented after кад. Зовем presents the call now or as ongoing/repeated activity.

Ordinary Serbian spelling does not mark pitch accent or vowel length. Store the principal forms звати — зовем — зову, назвати — назовем — назову, and позвати — позовем — позову.

L-participles, future, and imperatives

Form	звати	назвати	позвати
l-participle, m. / f. / n. singular	звао / звала / звало	назвао / назвала / назвало	позвао / позвала / позвало
l-participle, m. / f. / n. plural	звали / звале / звала	назвали / назвале / назвала	позвали / позвале / позвала
Future I, 1st singular	зваћу	назваћу	позваћу
imperative, 2nd sg. / 1st pl. / 2nd pl.	зови / зовимо / зовите	назови / назовимо / назовите	позови / позовимо / позовите

Зови ме ако се план промени.

Call me if the plan changes.

Позовите овај број и изаберите опцију два.

Call this number and select option two. (plural/polite)

Imperfective зови can invite calls whenever needed. Perfective позовите requests one bounded call.

Phone calls: звати, позвати, and widespread назвати

The person called is a direct object in the accusative: звати некога, not a dative modeled on English call to someone or Serbian телефонирати некоме.

Милица ме је звала три пута док сам био на састанку.

Milica called me three times while I was in a meeting. (male speaker)

Repeated calls fit imperfective звала. For one completed attempt or instruction, neutral standard Serbian readily uses позвати.

Позвао сам амбуланту и заказао преглед за четвртак.

I called the clinic and booked an appointment for Thursday. (male speaker)

Назвати некога телефоном and the shorter назвати некога for “phone someone” are widespread in contemporary usage. They have also attracted prescriptive criticism as a calque, so careful formal prose often chooses позвати телефоном or телефонирати некоме. This is real variation, not a reason to pretend speakers will never use назвати.

Назваћу те после посла да се договоримо о превозу.

I’ll call you after work so that we can arrange transportation. (widespread contemporary usage)

For reliable active use across Serbian contexts, звати for the imperfective and позвати for one bounded phone call are the least marked choices.

💡

Choose the perfective by sense, not merely by prefix: позвати for a call, summons, or invitation; назвати for applying a name or description. Phone назвати is widespread but stylistically debated.

Invitations and summons use позвати

Позвати also means invite or call/summon someone. The person remains accusative, and the destination or event often follows на + accusative.

Позвали су нас на вечеру, али још нисмо потврдили долазак.

They invited us to dinner, but we have not confirmed that we are coming yet.

Сестра је позвала децу да уђу јер је почела киша.

My sister called the children inside because it had started raining.

Phone context, an event phrase, or a да clause normally makes the intended sense clear.

Names and labels: звати, назвати, and звати се

To state a person’s name, Serbian uses lexical звати се. The name normally stands in the nominative.

Зовем се Тамара, а мој колега се зове Огњен.

My name is Tamara, and my colleague’s name is Ognjen.

Како се зове нова директорка?

What is the new director’s name?

The clitic се is obligatory in this construction and does not literally mean oneself. It remains unchanged across persons. There is no need to invent a routine perfective partner for someone’s stable name.

Without се, звати / назвати can take an accusative person or thing plus a predicative name or characterization. The predicative may be nominative in familiar naming or instrumental for an applied label.

Сви га зову Мики, иако му је пуно име Михаило.

Everyone calls him Miki, although his full name is Mihailo.

Новинари су тај потез назвали историјским преокретом.

Journalists called that move a historic turning point.

In the second sentence, accusative тај потез is the entity characterized and instrumental историјским преокретом is the label. For an ongoing or repeated labeling event, the direct imperfective is називати.

У извештајима тај поступак називају преседаном.

In the reports, they call that procedure a precedent.

Plain звати remains common with familiar names and nicknames (Сви га зову Мики), while називати preserves the deliberate labeling frame. Another frequent frame is назвати нешто по некоме “name something after someone.”

Нову читаоницу назвали су по дугогодишњој библиотекарки.

They named the new reading room after the longtime librarian.

Clitics and the special behavior of се

The called person is often an accusative clitic: ме, те, га, је, нас, вас, их.

Јуче сам те звао, али ти је телефон био искључен.

I called you yesterday, but your phone was switched off. (male speaker)

In the perfect of звати се, third-person singular auxiliary је is omitted beside се.

Њена бака се звала Даница.

Her grandmother’s name was Danica.

The natural form is се звала, not a cluster containing both се and auxiliary је. This is a clitic rule, not a special past tense of звати.

Micro-dialogue

— Како се зове мајстор кога треба да позовем? — Зове се Бојан; послаћу ти његов број.

— What is the name of the repairman I need to call? — His name is Bojan; I’ll send you his number.

The first зове се asks for a name; позовем means make one phone call. English uses call in both places, while Serbian changes the construction.

Common Mistakes

Regularizing the present stem

❌ Сваког петка звам родитеље после посла.

Incorrect — the present stem is ‘зов-’: ‘зовем’.

✅ Сваког петка зовем родитеље после посла.

Every Friday I call my parents after work.

Putting a phone-call object in the dative

❌ Звао сам јој јутрос, али се није јавила.

Incorrect with ‘звати’ — the person called is accusative, so use ‘звао сам је’.

✅ Звао сам је јутрос, али се није јавила.

I called her this morning, but she did not answer. (male speaker)

Moving се after the verb

❌ Како зовеш се?

Incorrect clitic placement — ‘се’ belongs in the early second-position cluster.

✅ Како се зовеш?

What is your name?

Using accusative for the name after звати се

❌ Моја сестра се зове Милицу.

Incorrect — the name after ‘звати се’ is nominative: ‘Милица’.

✅ Моја сестра се зове Милица.

My sister’s name is Milica.

Using назвати for an invitation

❌ Назвали су нас на свечано отварање изложбе.

Incorrect for ‘invited us’ in neutral Serbian — use ‘позвали’.

✅ Позвали су нас на свечано отварање изложбе.

They invited us to the exhibition’s opening ceremony.

Practice

Task 1: Choose the construction

Write four sentences: an ongoing phone call with звати, one completed call with позвати, a personal name with звати се, and a characterization with назвати + accusative + instrumental.

Task 2: Build the principal forms

Give the first-person singular, third-person plural, feminine l-participle, Future I first-person singular, and second-person singular imperative of звати, назвати, and позвати. Then replace an accusative person with a clitic.

Key Takeaways

Memorize the vowel change звати — зовем — зову and the parallel prefixed forms.
For phone calls, звати is imperfective and позвати is the least marked perfective; phone назвати is widespread but stylistically debated.
Позвати also means invite or summon; назвати names or characterizes.
Звати се + nominative gives someone’s name, while nonreflexive звати / назвати takes an accusative entity.

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